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Father's Day Special: Guys Who Dye

Do real men color their hair? In a youth-obsessed society filled
with lots of middle-aging men, indeed they do. The same boomers who
visit plastic surgeons are also seeking the fountain of youth in $6
bottles of peroxide. Barbers serving Viagra cocktails are surely
just around the corner.

Sales of hair color for men hit $113.5 million last year,
reports Information Resources, Inc., triple the amount a decade
ago. One in 12 American men today color their hair, according to
NFO Research, and they defy the usual stereotypes. A
disproportionate number of guys who dye are in their 30s and 40s,
single or divorced, and lead active social lives. They're more
likely than average Americans to work out, go to bars, attend the
theater, and take adult education courses (like painting and
drawing). They tend to be upper-middle-class, but not rich enough
to let money alone make a first impression.

"The two reasons men color their hair are the bedroom and the
boardroom," says Julie Bohl, director of public relations for
Combe, maker of Just For Men and Grecian Formula. "They use hair
color because it makes them look younger and more virile when
competing on the job and in the dating scene."

This portrait of the upwardly-striving male helps explain the
concentration of dyers in the fast-growing markets of the South,
West, and Mountain states, as shown in the accompanying map.
Residents there are likely to be unattached, college-educated, and
mobile-white-collar workers who've followed the migration of jobs
westward. In metro areas like Los Angeles, Denver, and Dallas,
research shows a strong correlation between population growth and
hair-color product sales.

Trend-watcher Roger Selbert notes that men have turned to hair
color in response to a changing workplace, filled with young
colleagues and superiors, a growing number of whom are female. "In
the past, looking older and more experienced was a benefit," says
Selbert, who publishes the Century City, California-based Growth
Strategies newsletter. "Now, you have to keep up with all the
changes in technology and look vigorous and youthful to succeed."
As men adapt, sales of other men's products, including cologne and
skin moisturizers, are also booming.

With pop culture icons like Dennis Rodman running around with
rainbow-colored locks, it's only natural that college students have
also gotten into the act. The current NFO survey found that
university towns like Gainesville, Florida; Austin, Texas; and
Lafayette, Indiana, rank among the nation's top-ten markets for
men's hair color. These consumers tend to be students who highlight
their hair with psychedelic shades to complement inventive body
piercings and baggy shorts.

Hispanic men, who are younger than the general population, also
color their hair at surprisingly high rates. One survey found that
Hispanics are 50 percent more likely than average Americans to use
hair color products. The top two markets on the map are Laredo and
El Paso, Texas, both home to large numbers of Hispanics "trying to
keep a youthful look," says Combe's Bohl.

Patterns of hair color use also mirror those of other anti-aging
products targeted to U.S. men. Our map, for instance, is strikingly
similar to one that depicts the 10 percent of American men who want
to try Viagra. The prime years for using hair color, from ages 30
to 50, also coincide with the period when most American men visit
plastic surgeons-often for preferred procedures like liposuction
and eyelifts. This preoccupation with appearance also shows a
geographic variance: California, which appears awash in peroxide,
is also home to 20 percent of the nation's cosmetic surgery
patients. By contrast, you'd be hard pressed to find even a bad dye
job among the rural, elderly men who live in the Dakotas and
Montana.

With many boomer men facing their salt-and-pepper years, the
outlook for hair color is as bright as newly covered gray. The
one-time '60s pleasure seekers who got their kicks with sex and
drugs now get turned on by massages and manicures. The American
Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery reports that three
times as many men got liposuction between 1992 and 1997; the number
getting eyelifts doubled. But unlike costly cosmetic surgery,
spending a few dollars for a bottle of youth seems like quite the
bargain. And for menopausal men, that may really put a swagger in
their step.